Greetings. My brother and I had a little issue replacing the timing belts and had the camshaft pulleys move while installing the new belts. I know this is not good and the valves may contact pistons if timing is off. I did not (until after the mistake) know that one need simply turn the timing wheel until T1 is aligned and cylinder one is at TDC before proceeding with the belt change out. This gives one the necessary "home base".Had I done that before starting the job, I would be happy right now. So to check that the belts were installed with the valve train in correct order, I slowly and gently turned the stator bolt and got most of the way through a complete revolution before coming to a stop. Bad thing: I then pushed a little harder on the wrench to see if I had simply reached a sticky point. Not real hard, but maybe with 25 inch pounds of torque. Still no budging. Long story longer, I ended up bumping a piston into a valve two additional times (gently as I was anticipating the piston coming up against a valve ) before realizing I really didn't know what I was doing. I've read know that if there is even the slightest contact, to pull the heads and expect valve damage. Other's have said that a little "bump" is probably ok. What is the recommendation generally for this kind of error? A simple maintenance task has turned into a nightmare for my brother and I.
And if the recommendation is to pull the heads for a valve inspection, what do I look for and how do I make the measurements to determine if damage has indeed been done to components? Thanks!

Last edited by dmshanks on Sun Oct 27, 2013 7:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Thank you for your responses. I was kind of thinking that myself. I needed confirmation. After searching around the web a bit, others have made similar comments to yours regarding this issue. Enjoy the week.

Turning over with just the starter motor will cause valve stem damage if the valve hits the piston. However it sound like you have been gentle with the wrench so give it a go and try it out. If a valve is not seating this will show in a compression test assuming the rings and bores are OK.